Ilze Shook, Preconstruction Manager

My name is Ilze Shook. I am a Preconstruction Manager in Colorado. I have been with Swinerton for two years.

Role and Responsibilities

I collaborate with our operations partners internally, owners, owners’ representatives, design partners, and trade partners to manage design/scope creep, project costs, and potential risks throughout the preconstruction phase of a project while keeping owners’ priorities at the front of the line.

Pursuing Career in Construction

I visited China during my sophomore year in High School. Standing atop the Great Wall of China and soaking in the history, acknowledging the blood, sweat, and tears that took place years ago for that piece of architecture to stand today made me want to leave a legacy behind as significant as what the Great Wall of China stands for.  

Challenges and Triumphs

As we all know, this is a male-dominated industry and one that has not always been kind to women. As a woman, I’ve been catcalled on a project site, harassed by men, talked down to, yelled at, left out of meetings intentionally due to not being part of the “boys club,” and I’ve been shamed for prioritizing my family as a mother. The advocates and allies of men and women throughout my career history supported, guided, showed up for me, and even stood up for me, helping me find my voice in this industry and the right home for my career.

Best Part about Construction

It is our social responsibility to provide for our communities. I love that the construction industry allows us to be part of and deliver on that responsibility through the projects we work on, from healthcare facilities that serve our families when they are ill, to schools that allow our children to be educated and grow into adults who may continue our legacy of serving our world, to aviation projects that will enable us to travel and experience different parts of the world that serve to enrich our lives. These impacts, plus the impact on our economy through each market’s employment opportunities, are why I love my industry.

Advice for Aspiring Professionals

Don’t give up. Our industry is complex and rough around the edges. It may feel like you are all alone often, but I can tell you that you are not. Find your advocates, find your allies, and let them help you find your voice so that one day, you can be the advocate and ally for someone else in need.

Empowering Women in Construction

To the younger me, WIC Week meant a celebration and acknowledgment of the challenges I faced that year and the opportunity to hear from others that I wasn’t the only one facing those challenges. To me, today, it is still a celebration of past challenges, but more importantly, it provides an opportunity for me to show up for the younger women in our industry and be the wall they can lean on when facing new challenges, just like others did for me.

Most Memorable Project

Five years ago, I got the opportunity to be part of an incredibly challenging IPD project at Children’s Hospital. The project had budget challenges from the beginning, and therefore, it created a lot of frustration every time I had to explain a new risk factor and the identified cost impacts. Every challenging step of that project forced me to find a different mindset when I approached that project and our team.

I had to learn to communicate in the way my team and our ownership needed so that they could hear the bottom-line message I was trying to deliver and not just see the dollar signs and challenges that sounded like. The Children’s Radiology Lab project was one of the most challenging projects I have had the pleasure of working with, and it truly taught me what it is to be a preconstruction manager.

The Mentor Who Made All the Difference

Greg Morgan. I met Greg Morgan when I was an estimator at GE Johnson about 10 years ago. Greg was patient and kind. He not only helped me learn a new scope or part of our estimating process, but, more importantly, he listened to my frustrations with the pace of my career development and my desire to do more and prove myself quicker than I was. Greg taught me to pause and think about how the “grass isn’t greener on the other side” and how my argument of “it’s greener where I water it” can only take me so far. He taught me that “golden handcuffs” are real regardless of the industry you work with and that you can only choose what kind of handcuff or its weight you are chained to.

My favorite thing about Greg is that he taught me that no matter how essential our jobs can be, how high the stakes are, or how high up on the corporate ladder you go, we are all still human. Nothing will leave you more satisfied with your job than having love and kindness towards those you work with – I still haven’t fully mastered this. Throughout my career, Greg has been an invaluable mentor, and I am incredibly thankful for the time and space he has dedicated to me over the years.

Professional Growth

As a company, we work hard to ensure that our people feel safe and supported and that they know they have a voice when things outside our control try to negatively impact the culture we have worked hard to build. That safe space and support within Swinerton have allowed me to use my voice across various topics while challenging me to listen with an open mind when I may have different opinions. Rather than pushing me aside, Swinerton encourages me to see the more significant impact that my job has on those around me and challenges me to find the right balance for me when it comes to my career and my family.